Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE MARTYRDOM. 197
The murderers approached. To one of them,
Fitz-Urse, the Judas of the band, Thomas spoke:
" Reginald, Reginald, I have done you many favours :
do you come against me in arms" They tried to
take him out of the cathedral, but he resisted, saying
: " Do with me here what you will ".
William de Tracy aimed the first blow, which fell,
as did all three murderous strokes, upon his head.
The Archbishop, seeing it coming, made his own
commendation : " I commend myself to God, to holy
Mary, to blessed Denys, and St. Elphege ".
Even after the
"
third blow, which prostrated him
before the altar of St. Benedict, he was heard to say
faintly: " For the Name of Jesus, and the defence of
the Church, I am ready to die ". De Breton's sword
had struck him with so much force as to separate
the crown I of the head from the skull.
As he lay there, bruised, mangled, and lifeless, before
the altar, the sub-deacon, Hugh of Horsea,
" placed his foot on the martyr's neck, and with the
point of his sword drew the brains from the
*
wound,
and scattered them on the pavement".1 All was
consummated.
When the knights and armed men stormed out of
the church, people from the town nocked in. At
last the church
"
was cleared, and the doors closed.
Then the monks with the servants and many of the
townspeople surrounded the holy body, which they
laid on a bier before the high altar. They one and
1 Morris, p. 419.